Doctors call for Canada-wide ban on pets riding in airplane cabins. What do you think?

The Canadian Medical Association on Tuesday voted in favour of a ban on all pets, except for certified service animals, such as guide dogs, travelling inside aircraft cabins on all Canadian passenger planes.

Photograph by: Archive
, Calgary Herald

The country’s largest doctors group wants cats and other small animals banned from airplane cabins, but airlines say they have no plans to banish Fido to the cargo hold.

The Canadian Medical Association on Tuesday voted in favour of a ban on all pets, except for certified service animals, such as guide dogs, travelling inside aircraft cabins on all Canadian passenger planes.

The heated debate, which pits allergy sufferers against travelling pet owners, has already seen one major Canadian airline reverse its decision in 2009 to ban small pets from cabins.

Arriving at the Calgary International Airport on Tuesday, 13-year-old Shelby Brost was appalled at the idea of placing her beloved Maltese, Molly, into the hold.

The pet stays inside her airline-approved doggy carry-on throughout the journey, Shelby added.

“As soon as (the kennel) is under the seat, she knows to lay down and go to sleep.”

B.C. doctor Mark Schonfeld says current federal regulations allowing major national airlines to accept in-cabin household pets are posing serious threats to people allergic to animals.

Cats and small dogs are the animals most likely to be found on board, though some airlines allow birds and rabbits as well.

“While airlines argue that this is a great convenience for pet owners, the practice actually exposes our patients, and their passengers, to significant allergens that can make the journey very difficult — and occasionally quite seriously ill as a result,” Schonfeld said Tuesday in St. John’s at the doctors group’s annual assembly.

Schonfeld said allergies to pet allergens are now classified by the World Health Organization as a disability.

He said pet allergies are triggered by animal dander, saliva, sebum and fur.

“These allergens are constantly shed into the air,” he said, where they cling to seats, carpets and aisles and are spread by air-circulating systems.

Passengers with severe allergies can end up with serious reactions — some end up needing treatment in intensive care, doctors say.

Delegates voted 93 per cent in favour of the motion.

One Vancouver doctor said he travelled recently with a dog under his airplane seat.

“My wife, by the end of two hours, was so asthmatic I had to take her to . . . emergency in California,” he told the assembled delegates.

“It makes no sense that we have let this happen because people want to take their pets,” he said.

“They can be carried in a pressurized hold in the cargo bay. They should not be up where it risks people’s lives.”

Dr. John Ludwig of Ontario said air travellers are trapped inside cabins, “breathing and rebreathing air, putting your body at risk for allergies.”

Canadian airlines said they have experienced just a handful of allergy-related emergencies due to pets on board. Demand for the carry-on pet service remains high.

In the past 18 months, Calgary-based airline WestJet has flown about 58,000 pets in aircraft cabins. Roughly 25 million passengers have taken to the air on over 243,000 flights during the same period, a spokesman said.

“During that period, our flight crews have been made aware of only a handful of allergy-related incidents where pets were present in the cabin,” Robert Palmer wrote in an e-mail to the Herald.

A sweeping ban on pets may “overstate the reality of the incidence of serious allergic reactions that may be attributed to the presence of pets in airline cabins,” he added.

Airlines take a number of steps to deal with potential problems of pets on board.

Passengers who tell the crew they have an allergy are placed as far away on the aircraft as possible from the pet, Palmer noted.

“WestJet guests have made it clear they appreciate the opportunity to travel with their pets in the cabin.”

Air Canada reversed its prohibition against allowing pets in the cabin in 2009.

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The Canadian Medical Association on Tuesday voted in favour of a ban on all pets, except for certified service animals, such as guide dogs, travelling inside aircraft cabins on all Canadian passenger planes.

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